Summer Festivals in Full Swing

Last weekend saw what is generally considered to be the most famous of summer festivals – Glastonbury. Back in 1970 when a group of hippies gathered together in a field, who would have predicted this would become a global phenomenon. A Metro article introduced us to the Glasto founder and owner of Worthy Farm, Michael Eavis and offered some interesting facts about the history of the festival including the fact that Eavis left school at 15 to join the Union Castle Shipping Line as a trainee midshipman. His “accidental” music event now has 175,000 paying visitors and successfully attracts the world’s biggest acts with 2017 headliners including Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry and Radiohead. The audience count is so huge that his music event trumps all events in Arizona that ever took place. According to the Daily Star, heavy rock band Foo Fighters took the record for throwing the most F**ks around, while Jeremy Corbin was hailed as the Messiah by an adoring crowd which just goes to show how cool 68 year old Socialists have become. There was a time, before social media, when summer festivals barely made the news and major live acts could afford to ignore them since they made their millions from record sales. Not anymore. Live music makes money again and these music events are about being seen, wearing the right brands and getting your pics on social media. According to Buzzfeed, Margot Robbie and Cara Delevingne were the coolest people at Glastonbury. The online Telegraph asked “Which festival style tribe are you?” and went through festival fashion guidelines, while the Daily Mail decided, “Glitter Boobs are the biggest trend at Glastonbury”. As they explain, festival fashion used to be synonymous with wellies and ponchos, but this year’s summer festivals have seen temperatures soar so at Glastonbury last week the revellers embraced a much racier and cooler look. “Women have doused their breasts in sparkly paint and nipple tassels in a bold new trend that’s been dubbed ‘glitter boobs’ – and it’s not one for the faint-hearted.” No mention of what men did to keep cool – any suggestions?